Tanzania, Africa travel journal – day 14

We were surprised when we got up that the power was out again. It was supposed to be out Tuesday and Friday from 7am-7pm but Thursday apparently was thrown in as a bonus. This put a crimp in our plans to use a power drill today or the internet.

Breakfast (again) consisted of a hard-boiled egg, sausage and bread and the group is starting to have some serious cravings for chocolate frosted sugar bombs. We were pleasantly surprised that our two Tanzanian “helpers” had gotten all of the screen installed the day before after all the wazungo got out of their way. We got most of the louvers installed by morning tea time (11am) and almost all installed by lunch. The power came back on mid-day which moved things along. Other workers are working on the roof at the same time so there is quite the cacophony.

I was able to connect my computer to the computer lab and check on my mail.

We worked until about 4pm when we were given a tour of the brand new lower campus that turned Makumira (swamp) seminary into Timaini (hope) University. It is quite modern and still under construction. Some of the classrooms are now in use and the students will move into the dorms after Winter break.

We were then treated to tea by a professor and his wife. It included a wonderful assortment of spice ginger tea, cookies, cake, peanuts, and sopas.

It was good enough to render the group speechless and we know how hard that is to do to a group of Americans. It is noticeable how quiet the average Tanzanian is versus the average American. We have been told that when you speak loudly here people assume you are angry. It does make it more difficult to understand even the Swahili that I learned because thy talk quietly and quickly.

Dinner in the cafeteria has taken on a very familiar look as the Tanzania food is good but has much less variety. We were serenaded by a videotape of MTV or BET playing at a high volume so we did not have as

much conversation.

Our evening again consisted of more internet time and visiting. We played some more Scrabble and then went to sleep to rest our sore muscles. I had been doing a lot of hand drilling on the tops of windows so could not lift my arms without complaint.